Checkin' in with Check It Out (whoa-oh) #2: Critical reception

I think before I get too deep into the land of--Hold on a second.

Ok, I looked up where Check It Out! was supposed to take place because I didn't remember. it was produced in Canada and aired on CBC, but it also aired in syndication here and on USA Network. I always assumed the grocery store at the center of the action was in California, just like most everything else on TV.

Not so! According to Wikipedia, Cobb's Grocery is in Brampton, Ontario. I don't remember anything in the series pointing to a Canadian setting, but it's been a long time. I wonder if there was ever a scene in which a customer complained at the register about the price of crackers or something and the cashier says, "Oh, but remember, these are CANADIAN dollars."

So before I get to deep into Brampton, Ontario, let me get a sampling of how the show is received, its legacy, so on and so forth.

Harry and Wally's Favorite TV Shows, one of my favorite books, gives the program ** out of *** and, in a brief capsule review, calls it a "simple but sometimes satisfying sitcom." That's better than I expected, really!

IMDB gives it a 5.9 out of 10. That is not good at all.

The New York Times trashes the show twice. In April 1986, Richard F. Shepard says Check It Out! is "silly without being funny at all." He adds, "The comedy deals more with jokes and gag lines, none of them very good, than with situation." Shephard says, There are standards even for inanity, which can be highly entertaining in skilled hands. Here one is left only with inanity that is placebo for entertainment."

In the Fall, tied to the show's debut on USA Network and marketing push, the paper's head TV critic talked about Check It Out! and a few other syndicated sitcoms like What a Country!.   Adams, he explains, manages a supermarket "with a staff consisting exclusively of morons and bimbos, those old standbys of television comedy a couple of decades ago." What, morons and bimbos were passe in 1986?

He continues: "This is the kind of comedy in which somebody gets to leave the room by announcing, 'I have to go to the potty.'" O'Connor closes by saying, "This is the kind of effort that makes any further talk of 'the promise of cable' seem thoroughly pointless."

What am I getting into, folks?

O'Connor stuns me by saying the "first-rate cast" of What a Country! "can make the material seem surprisingly fresh."

Checkin' in with Check It Out (whoa-oh) #1: How we got here

A while back, my tag team partner and co-conspirator Mike gifted me a TV DVD box set. The show assembled, in its entirety, on that set: The immortal Canadian sitcom Check It Out!

"Immortal" is a vast exaggeration. I think the only time I mentioned the show here on the site is a Don Adams birthday post 5 years ago. We have never come close to giving it a full episode on the podcast. It has hit multiple streaming services in recent years, but it's not like there was some Suits effect that kindled a new appreciation of the show.

(If you want to watch along, the DVD set is still in print and available, and the show is on demand for free streaming at Tubi, Plex, and Pluto among other outlets.)

So why, then, did Mike buy this set for me?

Wouldja believe--No, wait, wrong Don Adams show.

The answer is simple: Mike is awesome, and he knew I would enjoy this.

Now it is time for me to start enjoying this set. I have watched a few episodes, but we are between seasons (Season 13 Battys will come!) and have time to do some other things. So I am going to begin a journey through Check It Out!, watching every episode and checking in (Ha! I'm already on a roll) here on a regular basis.

Note that I didn't write "weekly." I am not 100% sure I will make it through this journey. The series lasted 3 seasons and 66 episodes. Will I?

Hey, Check It Out, it's Don Adams' birthday!

One of the most fascinating yet underreported aspects of 1980s television is the off-network first-run sitcom. We talked about What a Country! a few seasons ago, and in our TBS episode we discussed Rocky Road, but there are so many more to remember or discover.

On what would have been the late Don Adams' birthday, take a look at his 1980s sitcom Check It Out! Apparently exclamation marks were big in the world of non-network sitcoms back then. Let's all revisit the Canadian series with this 1985 promo (Yes, we have to!):

This is filled with things that are supposed to look funny--no, make that zany--but don't really inspire confidence that the series itself is going to provoke laughter. As a result, I declare this promo an utter failure, but then they didn't have much to work with apart from star Adams' incredulous mugging at the "zany bunch of employees." That's right, folks, the USA Network voice-over guy really describes them as zany. Nice try, and no disrespect to the great Alan Kalter, but the promo copy is really straining to suggest ensuing hilarity.

It's amazing to me this show lasted 3 seasons and over 60 episodes. Produced in Canada for CTV, it made its way to the USA on, as this promo proclaims with pride, the USA Network. What a country, indeed.

The sitcom was an adaptation of Britcom Tripper's Day produced jointly by DLT Entertainment (the production company that hit it big with Three's Company) for the two networks, making this the best Canada/USA team-up since..uh, I dunno, something with Alpha Flight and the X-Men? In 1986 the reruns hit syndication, but while it aired on New York's Channel 5, I remembered it only as a USA show and totally forgot it was anywhere else.

I didn't forget the show itself, though...try as I might.